From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Nigeria Society of Engineers(NSE) said it has found remedy to the challenges of flood and other environmental problems facing the people and the profession.
President of the association, Tasiu Gidari-Wudil,disclosed this Wednesday during a courtesy call to Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu as part of its activities for this years ‘Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu lecture series’ slated for Owerri on Thursday.
The President while reacting to request made by Iwuanyanwu on the improvement of the profession especially as regards falling standards , and ways of considering the climatic changes today noted that NSE has already initiated committees to tackle most of these challenges.
He said “Sir ,your concern on the climate, it was well pronounced this year ,we’ve experienced a lot,we’ve experienced flooding and as you know,the Nigerian Society of Engineers have divisions,the civil,division, water division and the environment division.
“This three divisions were tasked ,we gave them assignment to come up with a position paper ,the position paper is ready,we have done a lot ,it’s under review by some past presidents to make inputs before we go to press ,before we send it to the government and do a press conference.
“We have solutions,from past committees that were set up ,members have been involved in government committees and the feelers we’re getting from such committee is that all there recommendations are never implemented.
“So we are going to concentrate on the implementations of those recommendations and virtually all the committees are talking about the same thing because it’s a professional thing,they all have the same methods they have used and they did a very good work and I assure you we’re going to present them to Nigeria government and populace.” The NSE President assured.
He also added “it’s not only the government that have the problems of flooding,most floodings are caused by human activities and we have identified these human activities and pass solution for that,so we’re working on that.
Speaking about the standards, he said “Standards lies with the professionals ,we have given that assignment to all the divisions ,today we have 26 divisions and we have tasked each division to come up with one code of practice that can take local situations .
“If you’re talking about the BSC110,it was done by the British,can’t we bring it here ,like the peculiar level you talked about,such as the ground water ,we can do our own ‘8110’ ,can’t we do ‘BS7671’ which we have done surprisingly people don’t know about them .
Iwuanyanwu earlier in his speech urged the engineers to brace up to the new levels of the job instead of still following old trends.
He said “What concerns me now more than anything is this climatic change ,it’s gradually changing the whole picture of the world ,you can see today many buildings are collapsing ,many highways collapsing ,Mr President,I think you have to call most of your colleagues ,you might have done it already and if you want me to make an input,I would be willing.
“I think we need to reappraise the design post ,let us look at the design post we have for structures ,let’s see all the type of test we do for soil ,things are changing,underground waters are becoming too bad and it’s going to make many buildings to fail.
“Problem with Nigeria, we use the same design structure ,the type we use in Owerri is the same we use in Yenegoa where the water level has problem,I think the engineers should look at it ,we can not continue to follow all the things that was brought to us by Britain.
“Things are changing in our environment now,I believe that we should look at the structures,especially foundations ,it’s going to lead to failure of not only houses and highways even bridges ,we have to be very careful.
“The only thing that is saving us in bridges is that the factor set in bridges is too high, they’re on pile foundation ,we should change the design code so that we now take into account the new type of underground water that will emanate from climatic change.” Iwuanyanwu said.
He also added “And in some places the wind is getting much ,the wind velocity must be taken into account, I think, the Nigeria Society of Engineers must mirror these and monitor it.
“I have also been worried about the failure of roads,once the rains come,the roads are washed away,you must set up a committee to proffer solution to this ,we have design standards for all kinds of roads but people now come to do all sorts of design,this why we have failure of roads,there is need for quality control “. He said.
